ClimateCare buys itself out from JMorgan

Emissions offset developer ClimateCare said it has been taken private in a management buyout from JPMorgan Chase & Co. as it seeks to expand investment in the United Nations carbon offset market.

ClimateCare, founded in 1997 to invest in greenhouse gas emission-reduction projects, has been bought back by the management and is an independent entity as of today, Edward Hanrahan, an executive director of the company, said by telephone and e-mail from Oxford, England. He declined to disclose the price paid. JPMorgan bought the company in 2008, a year before its purchase of EcoSecurities, an offset buyer.

The company has sold offsets to companies including German utility EON AG, electronics maker Panasonic Corp. and vehicle manufacturer Land Rover as well as to Britain’s political parties and The Elders, a group of global leaders that include Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela.

ClimateCare specializes in emissions-cutting projects that also enhance sustainable development, focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa, Hanrahan said. These include fuel-efficient stoves and clean-water filters. Such projects create credits that can either be used by companies wishing to voluntarily reduce their carbon footprint, or by those wishing to comply with emissions trading systems such as the European Union’s market and the United Nations’ Clean Development Mechanism, or CDM.

“Moving forward we’ll be doing much more CDM project development,” Hanrahan said. “We have a large pipeline of projects which we’re working on at the moment both in the voluntary market and CDM. We’re working with a number of partners to develop some new projects as well.”